For the first time as the official Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris has expressed her support for legalizing marijuana.
Although Vice President and Democratic nominee for president Kamala Harris has supported legalizing marijuana since 2019, including cosponsoring a descheduling bill while in the Senate, she has (until now) not made any comments on the issue since becoming the official nominee.
In an interview with All the Smoke podcast , Harris said “I just feel strongly, people should not be going to jail for smoking weed. And we know historically what that has meant and who has gone to jail.”
Harris says “Second, I just think we have come to a point where we have to understand that we need to legalize it and stop criminalizing this behavior”.
“Actually this is not a new position for me,” says Harris. “I have felt for a long time we need to legalize it. So that’s where I am on that.”
Last week when asked whether marijuana should be legalized at the federal level, vice presidential candidate Tim Walz said “Well, I think it’s an issue for states on some of those, and that’s the way the states have done it”.
Last year, under a bill signed by Walz, Minnesota became the 23rd state to legalize adult-use marijuana.